Note: I get nothing from this banner and
am not associated in any way (although I did speak to Mark and ask him before I
linked it). Poor technique in the lifts is rampant with very few
exceptions and most people just don't have a good foundation for training
information. This is your answer. Don't waste months and years
reading bullshit in the mags and on the net trying to learn by watching the
morons in your gym screw up the lifts. If you don't take my word for it
read Jim Wendler's review
or the other ones.
You can purchase it through Mark's
site, EliteFTS, or
Amazon (beware Amazon being out of stock - this has been a problem for some
as they don't keep enough on hand).

Okay, this is a simple program - the problem is that people
have very little experience setting something like this up so we now have a
giant document and all kinds of crap to answer the questions that most often
arise (even some of the most inane ones). This is simple, effective, and
very direct training. You will see how simple it is after you do it once
but people seem to do a lot better with a surplus of information than a deficit
so this is a very comprehensive piece that should answer just about everything.

This program and variants have been making the rounds on the internet for a few
years now. Variations have been made for specific lifters, it’s been rehashed
and re-explained by various people ranging from your standard guy who had a lot
of success with it all the way to some fairly high level coaches in multiple
sports using it on their athletes or using it to illustrate periodization. It’s been cut/pasted into articles, internet
forums, interviews, etc… Heck I've put it out there a lot and tried to
give credit to every source I could locate as I was able but still my name wound
up getting attached to it even though I was pretty clear that this was not a
program I designed. This version here is one that I've tweaked a bit in an
effort to make it more accessible to the variety of people using a program like
this for the first time (i.e. trying to set it up to be as tolerable as
possible). All that said the real origins stretch back fairly far but for
practical application there are three primary sources who are responsible for
it’s popularity over the most recent 30 years: Bill Starr, Glenn Pendlay, and
Mark Rippetoe.

Bill Starr: This is a variation of Bill Starr's
classic 5x5. Bill is without doubt one of the best strength coaches ever,
serving at multiple universities, pro teams – including the Super Bowl 1970
Colts, and holding records in both PL and OL. His articles are frequently
reprinted in Milo, have appeared in Ironman for years (they might still be in
there periodically), and are generally all over the strength and conditioning
world. His book on training for football, 'The Strongest Shall Survive', is a
classic for coaches, players, and any strength athlete - you can pick it up at
Ironmind.

Glenn Pendlay: An accomplished powerlifter and
Olympic weightlifter in his own right and a fantastic strength coach, Glenn has
found his real calling training and developing others. He founded and serves as
the head coach for Wichita Falls Weightlifting – which he has quickly turned
into one of the best teams in the nation. He is also the coach of the MSU
weightlifting team, head coach of a Regional Olympic Development Center. Coming
to OL relatively late he still managed to snatch 170 kilos (375lbs), cleaned
210kilos (463lbs), push pressed 200 kilos (440lbs), and military pressed within
a few pounds of 400 on multiple occasions. You can learn more about him in
his
interview.

Mark Rippetoe: Owner of Wichita Falls Athletic Club,
co-author of Starting Strength, is
well known for his outrageous success in adding muscular bodyweight to new
lifters (30-40lbs in 4-6 months being fairly typical). Has trained
countless lifters over the years. Link to his
interview.

For those interested in a more full overview of how Mark
and Glenn typically train their athletes this is a solid piece to read:
Pendlay/Rippetoe Programing

This program and variations are very much in common use all
over the place even being common to elite athletes in various sports. This
program is very effective at increasing strength and lean body mass, it focuses
on the core lifts that drive full body hypertrophy and getting those lifts up as
quickly as possible. There is little isolation work and what is generally used
is targeted and specific, not the typical shotgun array of ‘let’s do everything
and the kitchen sink’ that serves mainly to dilute a program’s effectiveness.
Solve problems as they arise, do not waste time trying to preempt every possible
future issue one can imagine. Most people who haven’t trained like this tend to
be pretty amazed that the body grows very proportionately all on it’s own from a
small assortment of compound lifts. The idea is you do a few things and get
systematically better at them over time, don’t try to do everything all at
once. Focus on what matters most and remove all the garbage so you can do it a
lot and get really good.

People have had a lot of success using something like this
while cutting. I have seen a number of reports of people keeping bodyweight
constant, losing body fat, and increasing in most relevant measurements (chest,
thigh, arms) so that says something. If you are close to a weight class limit
you’ll need to be very careful. All that said, this program will make you
strong but if you want to put on muscle there absolutely must be caloric
excess. Read my piece on caloric excess if you haven’t already, more people
screw this up than anything else. This program has gotten results for 30 years
and still continues to get excellent results from bodybuilders, strength
athletes, or those looking for better performance. It is a very good method of
getting big and strong. In addition, specific to bodybuilding it breaks a lot of the
typical voodoo myths running around like “training a muscle 1x per week is
required for recovery” or that “isolation work is required or one will develop
all out of proportion”. This program is about simple training and results.
However, there is a ton of science behind it and one would do well to
familiarize themselves with dual factor theory and the properly used concepts of
volume, frequency, intensity, and workload. There is more to training than
simply going into the gym, getting under a bar, and working hard hoping to come
back better. So by running this program one gets gains and learns at the same
time, sort of a "teach a man to fish..."

This program is not ideally done as a “cookie-cutter” but
should be tailored to the experience level of the trainee. It is setup here for
an experienced lifter who is completely familiar with the core lifts and is
beginning periodization (i.e. with experience making week to week record
progress becomes less and less a reality for all lifters over time so this would
be a balanced version to use) . For most people unfamiliar with this style of
training, which is a lot more taxing than doing a bunch of isolation work, it’s
a good starting point. Some might find that they can be more aggressive with
the weights and load harder, some might need more volume, some might find
themselves doing really well in the volume phase and realizing that a single
factor program with more emphasis on frequency and the core lifts is what might
work best as significant strength increase during the initial phase would be a
good indicator that linear progress is still available but programming must be
improved (i.e. you don't need periodization, you need a good training program).
Anyway, it’s a progression not a static cookie cutter although we have to start
somewhere which is why I’ve drawn it up the way I have. I’ve tried my best to
cover that as have others but still people get attached. As a lifter progressed
workload will be expanded and obviously you can’t just keep hammering the same
thing again and again. The programming interview from Pendlay and Rippetoe here
http://www.readthecore.com/200510/markr.htm can probably provide more
insight and they have a book coming out with Lon Kilgore called Practical
Periodization (available early 2006) that is intended to cover multiyear
training plans and development.

If you've just randomly come to this topic or
been provided a link - there is a large amount of information here:
Table of Contents

CAUTION - READ THIS: if you are going to
devote hours and hours over weeks and weeks to a program, please take 10-15
minutes to actually read this page and understand it. That's a retarded
method of saving time. Also, you will find it hugely useful to read the
Training PrimerI
put together. You will understand so much more about training in general
if you read it. Honestly, save yourself years of learning and spend 10-15
minutes reading that page. Hell just print it out and leave it in the
bathroom. Within a couple days, you'll have it finished and you will be so
much further ahead than so many others.

Before beginning it is useful to know your 1 rep maxes or
more ideally your real 5 rep max in each lift (there is a table and calculator
in the TOC). You can base your 5x5 max off your 5 rep max just by cutting back a
bit. If you don't know this - it might be useful to test your lifts first or
start light and allow for some flexibility in the weekly planning so you can
make adjustments on the fly as you ramp the weights week to week to across the
board records in the final weeks of the volume phase. Don't overly stress on
this - it's easier than it sounds and once you've run it once, subsequent cycles
fall right into place.

So 5x5 is 5 sets of 5 reps with working set weight (warm up to the target weight
for the week and proceed through 5x5 with that weight). Where 1x5 is present you
are ramping the weights upward each set to a target set weight for a single set
of 5 (it's still 5x5 but each set gets heavier and your target set is the top
set of 5). The exception is the Wednesday squat for 5x5 using somewhere between
10-20% less than the working weight on the Monday 5x5 workout (the Wed squat may
increase less than the Monday squat over the ramping weeks - meaning it may
start at 12% less and wind up at 22% less by the last record week if one needs
some extra recovery). What you are doing is gradually increasing the target
weights week to week so you wind up performing record lifts in the final two
weeks of the volume phase (weeks 3/4 in this case). If you miss a weight, hold
it constant for the next week by carrying it forward (you should not be missing
until weeks 3/4 though). Keep in mind that you have separate targets for
5x5 and 1x5 even though they are the same lift (i.e. bench press). The ramping is
set separately for these and they are treated separately. It's a good idea to
start conservatively as this gets fairly backbreaking and you'll be begging for
week 5. The most common mistake is people starting too high. It's useful to
start light and then be flexible either adding an extra week to the ramp up or
moving your targets a bit as you feel your way. This is far easier in the
intensity phase because you already have a reference - likewise the next time
you run this workout, it'll be a no brainer. The main point in this phase is the
volume. Lower the weight if need be but get the sets and reps in. If you fail on
an exercise just carry the target weight forward into the next week. Some people
who are new to this might find it easier to run this phase for 6 weeks starting
much lighter and building slowly. If your working weights for the deadlift are
2x bodyweight (meaning you are a 200lbs lifter and you'll be doing 400+ for 5x5
throughout the cycle) it's probably a good idea to do lower the volume on that
lift to 3x5 in this phase.

The easiest way to set this up the first time is to put
current PRs in week 3 (with more experience and relevant lifts you might have
new PR goals in both weeks 3 and 4). Your 5RM can be calculated and just
drop off a given percentage for your 5x5RM (try 7.5% maybe) you get a week 3
figure for those lifts. Now back down to week 1. A conservative
number to start with might be 80% of your Week 3 PR lift then split the
difference for Week 2. If you are really strong (and jumps are large), you
might need more weeks to ramp up. What you don't want to do is start too
high, you can always tack on another week but if you start too high you blow the
progression. Anyway, week 4 lifts are a margin above week 3, maybe 5%.
It's important to plan it out and then play it by ear as you go, adjust where
need be so that you culminate with the 2 final weeks. If that means
starting lighter and running for 6 weeks that's fine. If that means, you
thought 4 weeks was fine but you were unexpectedly stronger (or got stronger
during this phase) and need to add an extra week to avoid a big jump, that's
okay too - just be very conscious of fatigue level. Your first time
through you'll feel pretty beat up after the last week, that's okay. If
you are beat up entering the 2nd to last week, that's something to watch.
You want to 'overreach' which is before overtraining. Sometimes you'll
encounter a performance deficit and not be able to set PRs (very common for
advanced athletes loading hard), without experience though you don't want to
push it too hard and overdo it - takes too damn long to recover from.

This option provides for deloading in the middle weeks and
working toward new PRs in the final weeks (think of it as almost 2 loading
phases as the 2nd will likely fatigue you by the time you are done). This
makes it a bit harder to handle particularly for first timers. In
addition, trainees might need a light week or two before moving back into
another loading period.

Deloading Week - Week 5:
On week 5 drop the Wednesday squat workout, begin using the Deloading/Intensity
set/rep scheme, and keep the weight the same as your last week in the Volume
Phase. In reality the whole intensity phase and this week are the same thing, I
just break this week out because there is no weight progression so in reality
after the volume phase the whole thing is deloading/intensity which for the
purposes of this workout are synonymous. Also my 3x per week layout tends to get
pretty aggressive as many find themselves fatigued again by the end so it kind
of makes logical sense to break this period separately. Largely semantics.

Intensification Phase - Week 6-9:
Everything is the same principal except that you use 3x3 and 1x3 setting records
on week 8 and 9 (or the final 2 weeks of this phase). No Wednesday squatting.
It's important that you recover before getting into the heavy weight PRs again
so if you have to keep Week 6 light, go ahead. The important aspect of
this phase is the weight increases. If you are burned out and you need an extra
day here and there that's okay - this won't hurt you at all and unless you are
feeling ripe it might well be beneficial. If you can't do all the work that's
okay too. Just keep increasing the weight week to week. It might also help to
keep the first week in this phase just incrementally higher than the Deloading
Week to provide for extra recovery if needed. During this phase you'll be
ramping the weights from your deloading week to your 3x3 and 1x3 records in the
final 2 weeks. In this 3x per week pattern, start light once again and get a
breather. Taking extra days or cutting out volume isn’t encouraged but if you
need extra recovery do it and then adjust your future training plans
accordingly. If you don’t get an adequate deload first (that 1 week may not be
enough) you will cripple your gains. Better to get 90% out of a training cycle
than 10%. You'll learn a lot about your tolerance for volume loading and
unloading here - there is no need to try to be a hero. Get some experience and
the next time you run this you'll be spot on but you wind up feeling your way to
a degree the first time.

Post Cycle:
Depending upon how you feel, it's probably a good idea to deload again before
moving back into another volume phase if you ran the 3x per week like I outlined
above. See the alternative schedule below and perform this light for 2 weeks
working on speed/acceleration. If you ran the 2x alternate schedule below for
your deload/intensity you can likely move straight back into another volume
phase.

This is designed to get you recovered without too much hassle or worry.
Frequency is dropped to 2x per week and the Friday workout is dropped. The
Wednesday workout can be moved to Thursday if desired. This phase can be
run as long as needed to recover or until one wants to do something else.
Maybe that's 1-2 weeks for some people to build enough steam to jump back into a
loading phase. Maybe that's 4-5 weeks if someone feels they are really
getting a lot out of it.

Week 5 and on switch to 3x3 and drop the Friday workout altogether. Week 5
weights are the same as the final week of loading. Over the following weeks
increase the weight workout to workout if you get all 9 reps. If you don't get
all the reps, keep the weight constant. You'll likely be able to move straight
back into another volume phase after this is complete. As for the
increases week to week, probably best to use a percentage but to make it easy
for first timers maybe add 5lbs to benches and rows then 10lbs to squats and
deads.

The Lifts:Squats - these should be full range Olympic style squats. Use the full
range of your body - that means as low as you can go which for almost everyone
is past parallel. If the top of your thighs aren't at least parallel it's for
shit. If you think this is bad for your knees going low, you and whoever told
you that are relying on an old wives tale. Anyone who knows the human body will
tell you that below parallel is MUCH safer on the knees whereas parallel and
above put all the sheer right on them and doesn’t allow proper transfer of the
load to the rest of your body (this is how your body was designed). Read the
Squat article from Arioch linked in the TOC for a complete description and
references on the mechanics of the squat and depth.Deads - each rep is deweighted fully on the floor. No touch and go. This
is called the 'dead'lift because the weight is 'dead' on the ground. You can
touch and go warm ups but that's it.Military - standing overhead presses. Supporting weight overhead is a
fundamental exercise and stimulates the whole body. Push presses are a fine
substitute.Rows - 90 degrees and done dynamically (Accelerate the weight into your
body - do not jerk it but constantly increase the pace like an oar through
water). There is a TOC topic on rows, a good read that also illustrates a
version done from the floor.Common Sense - this program has you train very hard and build quickly to
heavy weights. If any of these compound lifts are new to you (like dynamic
rowing from the floor or deadlifting) it is unsafe to subject yourself to this
kind of unaccustomed work. Compound exercises have a way of finding weak links
in the body - heavy lifting has a way of stressing these weak links. What this
means is that the chance of injury is greatly increased. Spend some time working
with the lift(s) before beginning a program that pushes you this hard.The rest is self explanatory.

Time Between Sets:

Don't over think this. Use a natural rep speed, take
what you need between sets. Don't be lazy but don't rush. You can't
be doing rapid fire sets of big compound lifts. Maybe on the lightest
warm-ups you take a minute but most sets will be 2-5 minute range with 2 being
between fairly easy sets and 5 being after a heavy set in preparation for
another very serious major effort that drains you. I can see exceeding the
5 minute limit by a tad when really pushing near failure in the PR weeks when
you are uncertain of getting your reps on your last set. Just use your
brain and don't micromanage.

Diet:

Depends on whether you are trying to gain muscle or what.
I will say that for gaining muscle, caloric excess must be present. Read
the caloric excess topic in the table of contents. More people,
particularly bodybuilders, go wrong here. If caloric excess is present and
training stinks, you will get fatter. The few guys who have come back with
no weight gain got very strong and gained no net weight - guess what - they were
already fairly lean (i.e. no excess in their diet otherwise they'd have been
fatter) and they didn't gain fat or muscle (no caloric excess during training).
There's nothing any program can do if you won't eat. For the purposes of
gaining muscle or getting big and strong it's better to eat McDonalds and KFC
all day long than not eat enough Zen clean ultra pure food which might be
healthier but if not enough there's simply nothing to use to grow. So
caloric excess is a requirement, you don't need to eat like a slob but it will
work infinitely better than not eating enough healthy food for this purpose.
Lots of people have gotten big and strong on diets that were bad, if you choose
to eat squeaky clean, kudos to you but it is not critical to putting on muscle
(it might be critical to a long high quality life though). If
you need a more in depth explanation, look here.

Learning about Your Tolerances/Setting Up Your 2nd Training Cycle:
This can be somewhat daunting to set your weights the first time you run this
and for reasons already stated it's a lot better to be on the conservative side.
I don’t provide percentages because this is very individual and I want people to
pay attention to their bodies and learn – stated percentages have a way of short
circuiting the learning mechanism even in the face of common sense. Once you've
been through this once, you'll learn a lot about your tolerances and you'll have
a set of very relevant records which you can sub right into the next training
cycle. Your best 5x5 would become week 3 and then week 4 a margin above it (this
is conservative) - or ideally week 3 would exceed your best 5x5 by a margin and
then week 4 above that (this makes for a tougher loading cycle and this is one
of the things you'll learn whether or not to do for your current state of
conditioning). In addition, if you are really loading hard, performance will
decline towards the end so setting records and actually getting the lifts may
not be possible (and that’s okay because the juice comes on the other end). The
other lifts 1x5, 3x3, 1x3 are similarly adjusted based on previous records.
Also, people's tolerances vary widely at every level. Take 2 top competitive
lifters - they may lift exactly the same weight, have similar training history,
and be equally sized but one requires a massive amount of volume in training
while another does not. No ego just what each needs to stimulate progress. As
you go, you'll learn all about what you need, what you can handle, and what is
too much. Eventually, you'll be able to tailor this program or an entire 6 month
training cycle to your individual specs and requirements. Obviously reading the
Training Theory topics in the TOC is going to really assist in providing you a
framework in how to quantify and design your programs.

Incorporating the Olympic Lifts:
The above is basically setup for someone who doesn't know the OLs. Starr's
original workout included Power Cleans and High Pulls. Instead of Bent Rows
substitute Power Cleans. Rather than Deads substitute High Pulls. That’s a
quick and dirty way of handling this without much disruption.

Substituting Exercises:
Don't fuck with this. Every bodybuilder seems to have Attention Deficit Disorder and an
overwhelming desire to customize everything. The bottom line is that these are
all the most effective exercises and just about anything one does will result in
less gains. As a rule those people who want to change it don't know enough to
make proper alterations - those who do know enough, don't have much to change.
The two guys who are responsible for this program are some of the best on the
planet at bulking lifters and making people stronger. It's kind of like Sesame
Street's Elmo offering neurosurgery advice at NYU. Anyway, it's absolutely
essential not to screw with the squats, they are the foundation of this program.
If you want to sub inclines or push presses for military that's okay. Do not sub
machines - don't even think about it, hit yourself with a plate if you must. If
you want to do arms choose a single biceps and triceps exercise and perform them
at the end once per week for 3 sets of whatever - your arms will take a beating
from all the pulling and pressing anyway. If you can't chin due to bodyweight,
pulldowns are okay. Core work is always fine. Cardio is fine - interval training
is the best for this I'll just throw out. If this is just too much mental
strain, take solace in the fact that it's 9 weeks, you'll gain a ton of muscle
and strength and then you can spend the next 4 weeks adding the minute detail to
refine the gained mass (like most care anyway - I have yet to meet a guy on this
board who will trade 20lbs of muscle for a bit of added detail somewhere). In a
nutshell, put your trust in some of the better coaches on the planet and enjoy
the results. If it doesn't look like a typical program to you, that's because
most programs suck and almost require drugs or a total novice lifter to see
gains. For a lifter with some experience, it is not enough to go in and work
hard - you need a program that properly regulates volume and intensity (either
that or you'll settle for very suboptimal gains or simply use increased drug
dosage to compensate for shitty training). Read the dual factor and training
theory topics in the TOC.

Bands/Chains/Speed/DE:
If you don't know what this is, don't worry about it. Read up on Westside
sometime - it's not integral to the program but incorporating work like this
into your training cycles can be worthwhile no matter if you are a PL, general
athlete looking for performance or bodybuilder. For those that do and want to
incorporate them, the 1x5 days are the days you would choose for these in the
generic layout.

New or Novice Lifters:
A dual factor program is unnecessary. This is more work than you need and slower
progression. Why add weight once every 4-8 weeks if you can string
together new personal records for weeks at a time back to back. I really
recommend Rippetoe's Starting Strength for beginners or novices. It's so
critical to learn the lifts correctly and get started on a good program (i.e.
not what one typically finds on bodybuilding sites).

Advanced Lifters:
As one learns about one's tolerances and progresses over time one will generally
find that one is able to gradually accommodate more volume. Some might find it
more advantageous from a recovery standpoint to do all their 5x5 work on Monday
and save the 1x5 for Friday. In terms of this generic template what
generally happens is that a lifter will remove the pyramid 1x5 workouts and swap
them into a second 5x5 over time. In addition, an advanced lifter might start
their ramps much closer to their record weights (that said, this same lifter
might need a longer period of acclimation before being able to handle record
weights so a lot depends on the individual and the current state of the
athlete). As one's weights increase the volume can also be spread over 4 days
rather than 3 to accommodate the fatigue from the heavier weights – especially
the Wednesday deadlift. These lifters might also compress the training cycle
into 2-3 weeks of loading and 1-2 weeks of deloading once they are geared up and
training hard (this would be within the context of a longer training plan like a
planned out Macrocycle – give a read to Planning Your Training Cycle and the
Training Theory section of the TOC). I'm just going to state, this stuff is for
someone who has spent some time doing this type of work. I only include this for
completeness because it is needed to illustrate progression and if I put an
“advanced” version down you can bet everyone would be doing it, burning out,
making zero progress, and I’d be “wrong” and this program would be “bad”. The
way I have it listed above will overload just about anyone besides an
accomplished seasoned lifter and push them to their limit if they set their
weight right. You apply more volume when you need it, not as an ego thing. This
will destroy or drastically limit your gains. Don't do this unless you've run
many dual factor training cycles and are absolutely sure you need it. I'm being
overly cautious but most people on this board come from a bodybuilding background where
typical programs are the 3 day split variety hitting each muscle 1x per week.
This base program itself is a whole different world of volume and the tweaks
here can make it much more taxing and in every single case that I've seen where
someone is even relatively new to this style of program - they should not be
employed.

This is a downloadable Microsoft Excel file that calculates
your relevant lifts and plots out what this program might look like over 9
weeks. It makes a lot of assumptions that might not be right or near
optimal for any given lifter. I've tried to make it applicable to an
experienced trainee, familiar with the lifts and just starting to run programs
like this. Understand that this is just a reference for what it might look
like as some people do a lot better with an example - you don't need or
necessarily want to adhere to this.

TWO VERY IMPORTANT POINTS

1. When running this for the first time, you want to be
constantly thinking about how realistic expectations are (i.e. is next week too
high or too low) and making changes as needed to bring you up and time things
correctly.

2. After you have run this even once, do not rely on
this spreadsheet. You will do infinitely better with even the tiniest bit
of experience, a pencil, and your brain which is worth infinitely more than the
fanciest of spreadsheets.

You will obviously need Microsoft Excel or a compatible
spreadsheet program to make use of this file. If you don't have the full
version I think you can download
Excel Viewer
from Microsoft for free, just run a web search and you should find it quickly
enough. You might also find the
Microloading article a worthwhile read if you are working with percents or
incremental increases.